Mom was nervous.

Troy Everett was entering the NCAA transfer portal on Saturday morning. He and his family talked through all the pros and cons and felt it was the right decision. But he didn’t have a plan for where he hoped to go. He didn’t know how long it would take to find a home. His mother, Stephanie, didn’t love all the uncertainty.

What if Troy had to move across the country? Or what if he didn’t get any offers?

“You know how the moms are,” Troy said. “She was freaking out.”

He hit send on his Twitter post at 10:15 a.m. from his parents’ home in Roanoke, Va. His name officially appeared in the portal at 11:37 a.m. Almost instantly, his phone rang. After wrapping up his first call, he went to find her.

“I popped my head in and told her, ‘Mom, you can take a deep breath now. Virginia Tech just offered,’” Everett said. “She started tearing up. She was a wreck yesterday. I love her, but whew!”

That moment alone, that sigh of relief followed by a sense of excitement, is the feeling everyone’s chasing in the portal. Everett, an offensive lineman at Appalachian State who is wrapping up his second year in college, hoped he’d receive good news when he entered on the first day of the spring transfer window. He hoped schools like Virginia Tech that recruited him in high school would reenter the picture. But you can never really know what to expect.